Ironically, the same man who encouraged concertgoers with lyrics like “There’s healing for your sorrow / healing for your soul” says he felt like a fraud since those very words left him feeling unchanged.
“They’re coming up to me saying, ‘Your song saved me from this’ or ‘Your song ministered to me,’ and I’d go off the stage and go back to the hotel, close the door, and I’m hurting,” gospel legend Richard Smallwood explained.
The pain intensified as he desperately tried to keep it hidden from everyone.
“It’s such a stigma. You’re ashamed,” he said. “I think, certainly, the Church doesn’t talk about it. And, certainly, my culture doesn’t talk about it. So it was sort of a double kind of thing. I didn’t want anybody to know.”
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